Marble League 2018
The 2018 Winter MarbleLympics will be the first winter edition ever! It will contain all new events including Bobsleigh, Curling, Ski Jump, Ice Hockey (like collision) and lots more winter-based disciplines. The final tournament will contain 12 events where the 16 teams will compete to win medals and points. The scoring system will remain the same as in ML2017. This is also the very first MarbleLympics that would feture a fixed "host". This trend would continue to be featured in successive Marble Games editions Qualification: The qualification of the ML2018 were held in mid-to-late-December of 2017. The Snowballs (as the event's hosts), O'rangers (winners of the ML2017), Savage Speeders (runners-up in ML2017) and Mellow Yellow (3rd place in ML2017) qualified automatically. 24 teams entered the qualification in 3 groups of 8 teams each, where the best 4 teams from each group qualified after 4 events. Qualifying events Notes: * The Curling and Halfipipe events were contested from all members of the teams, while in the Snow Race and 5m Ice Dash each team had to select one competitor * The curling event was split into three separate parts. Each group had its own video * The Snow Race was originally scheduled for 19 December, but was postponed to 20 December due to technical issues. * The 5m Ice Dash was originally scheduled for 21 December, but it was uploaded 22 December due to editing failures. Pots: POT 1: (Non qualified teams of ML2017) * Kobalts * Balls of Chaos * Rojo Rollers POT 2: (4th and 5th places ML2017 + new team) * Midnight Wisps * Team Galactic * Raspberry Racers POT 3: (6th and 7th places ML2017 + new team) * Pinkies * Shining Swarm * Hazers POT 4: (8th, 9th and 10th place ML2017) * Chocolatiers * Team Momo * Limers POT 5: (11th, 12th and 13th place ML2017) * Oceanics * Thunderbolts * Jawbreakers POT 6: (14th, 15th and 16th place 2017) * Team Primary * Jungle Jumpers * Quicksilvers POT 7: (Approved Hubelino Teams) * Black Jacks * Minty Maniac * Golden Orbs POT 8: (3 more new teams) * Crazy Cat's Eyes * Team Plasma * Gliding Glaciers Groups: Curling: The curling event features a short shoot that each marble on a team will roll out of 1 by 1 towards a "house" or target with different rings that equate to different point values. I.e. if one marble finishes in the blue ring it earns 1 points. Group A: Group B: Group C: * After the semi-final match between Team Primary and Balls of Chaos, which ended in a draw but Team Primary won by virtue of having a marble closer to the button, Balls of Chaos fans attempted to storm the area in rage before entering in a brawl with other spectators. A spectator eventually entered the playing field, but was escorted out. Snow Race: The Snow Race is very similar to the Sand Race from the 2016 summer games and the 2017 summer games, but takes place in the snow as opposed to in the sand. Group A: Group B: Gliding Glaciers and Oceanics failed to finish the race, so their results are based on the distance reached (i.e. which team is closer to the finishing line) Group C: This was the first heat in any racing event where none of the competing marbles finished the race. Despite having no finishers, the race was not restarted due to the fact that each marble had already agreed to race in the harsh conditions. The scores were determined based upon distance to the finish line, with the closest to the finishing line earning 8 points with the points distributed in the same way all the way until the farthest marble which received 1 point. 5-Meter Ice Dash: The 5-meter ice dash is a racing event similar to the 5-meter sprint, the difference being where it gets the name ice dash, the course is made of smooth plastic with no barriers between the marbles, causing an effect similar to slipping on ice. Group A: Group B: Group C: Halfpipe: The halfpipe features, well, a halfpipe. All four marbles on 2 teams roll down a chute onto the halfpipe and try to stay rolling for as long as possible while slowly making their way towards the bottom of the halfpipe. Slowest time wins! Group A: Group B: Group C: * After the duel between Balls of Chaos and Team Primary, which resulted in Balls of Chaos winning their duel and the result meant that Team Primary would miss out on qualification, competittors and spectators from both teams entered into a scuffle. Fortunately security took everything under control. Qualified teams * Out of the 16 teams that qualified for the final tournament, four teams (Hazers, Minty Maniacs, Crazy Cat's Eyes and Raspberry Racers) would make their début in the MarbleLympics. * 2 teams, those being the Snowballs (hosts) and Balls of Chaos had participated in the 2016 summer games, but failed to qualify for the 2017 summer games, making this their 2nd time participating. * The Midnights Wisps is the only team that made their debut in the 2017 summer games and qualified for the 2018 winter games. Friendly League Also known as the "Practice Tournament", the friendly league puts the pre-qualified teams against each other in the 2018 qualifying events. Results: * The Snow Race was cancelled due to bad weather during the event. Main Tournament: This is the tentative schedule for the games. There may be production delays. Event 1: 5 Meter Ice Dash Event 1 of the Winter MarbleLympics began with the opening ceremony, which featured a beautiful new track created by GrandAdmiralMellacus. The ceremony introduced each of the 16 teams as well as the ice king and queen, rulers of the arctic circle, along with IMC (International Marblelympic Committee). The anthem of the Snowballs was played after the torch was lit. The event itself was identical to the 5 Meter Ice Dash featured in the qualifiers. Event One Results: Event 2: Ski Jumping Ski Jump is very similar to Long Jump, but takes place in the snow. The marbles roll down a track and soar into the air, trying to jump as far as possible. The record entering the event is 120.7. Balls of Chaos won gold by breaking that record with Hazers coming close. Event Two Results: Event 3: Halfpipe Event 3 was originally Curling, but the video is cancelled due to disapproval by the IMC for being too boring. The event is replaced by Halfpipe. A new version of curling is schedules as a future event barring any production delays. The Halfpipe was structured with two heats but only the slower of the two times was counted. Event Three Results: Event 4: Bobsleigh: The marbles must roll down a hill with their bobsleigh. If a marble leaves the bobsleigh for any reason, then the judges will add a certain number of penalty points. During this event, Team Momo's sled stopped after they started, so there was a retry. The team also received several injuries. Event Four Results Speed Skating 20m: This is different from Speed Skating 50m because the track is shorter than the 50m Speed Skating. Event Five Results: Overall Results: Fun Facts * This is the first MarbleLympics season to feature a host team, and fittingly, the host team this season is the Snowballs. * This was also set to be the first season of the rebranding to Marble Games - the change was done to avoid copyright issues as per Jelle's statement in his Youtube channel. However the name remains MarbleLympics. * Some of the snow and ice events will be held in Bad Kieinkirchheim, Austria, which is also a real-life ski resort. * The Gliding Glaciers, despite their name, failed to qualify or even reach 7th place in their group. * This is the first MarbleLympics season to feature interviews worken into the videos. These interviews were soon moved to a secondary channel - Inside the MarbleLympics - which includes also exclusive original talkshows starring the competitors. * Both Team Plasma and the Crazy Cat's Eyes have roots in the Sand Marble Rally, with Team Plasma being based on SMR2016 champion Ghost Plasma, and the Crazy Cat's Eyes being based on Crazy Cat's Eye. * Additionally, the Minty Maniacs, Golden Orbs, and the Black Jacks are teams crossed over from the Hubelino Tournament, although Golden Orbs had a slight name change, from Golden Wisps to Golden Orbs. * The Gliding Glaciers, Hazers, and Raspberry Racers are the only 3 newcomers not based on an already existing series on Jelle's channel, however, commentator Greg Woods has stated that the Raspberry Racers has a feud with the Limers. * Going back to the Raspberry Racers, Jelle has said that they are a combination team between both the Bluefastics and the Valiants Violets from the Hubelino Tournament. * This marks the second season in a row that the original top 5 teams (Savage Speeders, Mellow Yellow, Thunderbolts, Team Momo, and O'rangers) have all qualified for the main tournament.